Sometimes You Need a Big Change…Why We Hope to Move to Montana

As we finish up our two week vacation here, I can best express this through a quote from John Steinbeck.

“I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it is difficult to analyze love when you are in it.”

We have lived in Missouri our entire lives. And, while we certainly appreciate Missouri, our friends, our business, our families and our church, we are in love with Montana.

Surely you have heard the phrase, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

I feel like that with Montana. I didn’t know I could love a place so much. I didn’t know that after visiting just once, it would feel like home. I didn’t know how much just a location on the map could nourish a soul. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.

This trip and this decision comes after a lot of prayer and a lot of questioning about what we don’t know, what we have assumed to be right and the confines we all put ourselves in.

We have always wanted to move West. We just never actually asked if it was possible. We just assumed we would stay in Columbia.

We have always assumed that we would both work 40+ hours a week, that it is the American way and something we are stuck with.

We have always assumed that our kids would go to public school and then we would run the rat race of driving them to one activity after another.

But I believe the Holy Spirit is stirring within us to ask these questions and explore the answers.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

For us, mom and dad working 40+ hours doesn’t allow us time to seek God’s kingdom first. It just doesn’t. I’m not saying you can’t do it, but I am saying we can’t or aren’t.

Again, I am not saying that kids can’t go to public school and then to activities and still honor God. But I have to question, what and who has the most influence over my children when I send them to public school all week? And who gets to connect with them the most? Will we, as a family be able to connect the way we need to? I mean, really connect, where you have margin in your schedule to listen to silly questions, or build a lego truck for the 800th time, or talk about real things like who created you.

And, of course, you can seek God first in Columbia Missouri. In fact, it is only because of Columbia, my church and God’s hand in my life that I even ask these questions. But could we, if we shake things up a bit, could we do it better? In Columbia we have certain expectations and certain confines that we put on ourselves and maybe, just maybe those need to change.

I don’t have all the answers, and I surely can’t always tell what God wants us to do. That is the challenge we all live with. But I do want to make sure we are asking questions, that we are praying fervently and not just taking the easy road, or the path everyone else takes out of default.

“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Matthew 24:44

Again, it will only be after a lot of prayer and with God’s blessing and guidance that we make this change. Though I do feel God’s hand upon this, it also feels a bit luxurious, a bit too good to be true….here are few of the reasons why.